1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for bathing body parts, such as the feet or hands.
2. Background Art
Most people experience foot problems at some time in their lives. This is not surprising, considering that many people are employed in jobs that require them to be on their feet all day. In fact, even an average day of walking can exert force equal to several hundred tons of pressure on the feet.
In an attempt to alleviate a variety of podiatric problems, bathing of the feet has become a recognized therapeutic method. For example, soaking soothes the feet and aids in recovery from fatigue. Bathing of the feet also stimulates the circulation of blood therethrough, which results in increased metabolism and excretion. In addition, foot bathing facilitates the removal of painful growths such as calluses, bunions, and corns.
Many types of foot baths have been utilized as therapeutic devices for the feet. Typically, foot baths provide heated water for which the temperature is maintained via electrical means. In addition, current foot baths often provide massage to the feet through vibration of the foot bath. Vibratory massage enhances the therapeutic results achieved with soaking alone by further increasing circulation, as well as relaxing and massaging the muscles.
In addition to vibratory massage, a foot bath may employ the use of water jets to provide concentrated massage to different areas of the feet. For example, to massage the bottom of the feet, jets can be strategically placed in the bottom surface of the foot bath to direct water upward. One shortcoming of such a design is the potential to spray water out of the foot bath if the user's feet are not in the bath to deflect the water streams. Moreover, even if the jets are not pointed directly upward, water can still be expelled if the pressure is too high and the user's feet are not in the bath. One solution is to limit the water pressure to a level that is not great enough to expel water from the bath. This solution may be of limited practical use, however, in that a higher water pressure may be desired by the user to provide an adequate massage.
Therefore, a need exists for a bath apparatus having water jets to provide streams of water to massage a body part, and yet also provides a mechanism for automatically increasing the pressure of the water flowing through the jets after the body part to be massaged is at least partially submerged, thereby limiting the water jet pressure until the body part is in a position to deflect the water streams and keep the water within the bath apparatus.